Law enforcement authorities have notified suspicion against 20-year-old Kherson resident David Stovba (known in occupation media under the surname Lobakin). Stovba, who led the local branch of Putin’s organization “Young Guard of United Russia”, is accused of publicly calling for changes to Ukraine’s territorial borders and of denying the occupation.
This is stated in the text of the suspicion, published on the Office of the Prosecutor General’s website.
According to the investigation, the man, while on the temporarily occupied territory of the left bank of the Kherson region, actively facilitated the holding of illegal elections to local and regional councils of the Russian Federation in September 2023.
In a video published on a propaganda Telegram channel, the suspect publicly urged residents of the region to come to polling stations and vote for Russian candidates. In his appeal he claimed that the Kherson region had allegedly “returned to its historic large family — the Russian Federation,” and called for helping the “integration” of the region into the aggressor state’s composition.
The investigation determined that Stovba’s statements are inciting in nature and aimed at harming Ukraine’s territorial integrity. His actions have been qualified under two articles of the Criminal Code of Ukraine: Part 1 of Article 110 — public calls for changing the borders of the territory or state border of Ukraine in violation of the procedure established by the Constitution; and Part 1 of Article 436-2 — denial of the temporary occupation of part of the territory of Ukraine.
According to pro-Russian media, as of 2023 David Stovba studied at two so-called institutes (on the left bank of the Kherson region and in Crimea) and worked in the press service of the occupation ministry of labor and social policy of the Kherson region.
In autumn 2023 he was elected as a deputy of the occupation Council of Deputies of the so-called Henichesk municipal district of the Kherson region.